Leadership Workshop Series
Positioning Yourself for Global Opportunities
Glory Oguegbu on the work that comes before the opportunity: purpose, testing, proof and visibility.
Taught by Glory Oguegbu, Founder
Watch a 96-second preview
Why a programme one school undervalued now reaches 180 schools across Nigeria
A recorded GEPA leadership session in which Glory Oguegbu sets out what energy professionals have to do before global opportunities can find them.
About this course
This course is built from a single GEPA leadership webinar led by Glory Oguegbu, who founded a renewable energy training institute in Nigeria and has had her school climate programmes adopted and funded by a major bank. She was asked to speak on positioning for global opportunities and spent the session arguing that most people try to position long before they have done the work that makes positioning possible.
The session moves through five stages of that work. First, purpose: deciding which opportunity you actually want, knowing your own stage, and defining a why that comes from a problem you have seen rather than from a trend. Second, testing: what happens in the years when an idea has been rejected, why she says values are not truly yours until they have been tested, and why failing early beats waiting for certainty.
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Third, proof: primary research with real users, the limits of what AI can do for you, and working from your top strengths. Fourth, visibility: telling your story, documenting impact, volunteering and reading. Fifth, the move itself, told through her own account of how she entered the energy sector in 2015 and won an award at a conference she could not afford to attend.
The teaching is explicitly Christian in framing, as GEPA sessions are, and the speaker draws on scripture alongside her business experience. The practical content stands on its own for any professional: how to validate an idea, how to survive the period before anything works, how to build visibility, and when to move without waiting for certainty.
There was almost no question and answer in this session. One chat question came in near the end, the host could not read it clearly, and it was not answered, so the course is built entirely around the talk and the extended story the host asked for at the end.
What you will be able to do
- Decide which specific global opportunity you are preparing for and what has to be in place before it arrives.
- Define a why that comes from a problem you have seen rather than from a market trend or a generated idea.
- Validate an idea through direct conversations with the people you intend to serve.
- Work from your top strengths and bring in people who are strong where you are not.
- Build visibility through documented impact, storytelling and volunteering.
- Act on an opportunity before the outcome is certain, as the speaker did in her own career.
Who this course is for
- Early and mid-career energy professionals across Africa
- Engineers, lawyers and consultants moving into energy and climate work
- Founders building energy or climate ventures with little support around them
- Students and recent graduates deciding how to enter the sector
- Christian professionals who want faith and career decisions to line up
Curriculum
Course structure
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2 lessons
Module 1
Start with purpose, not with the opportunity
Why the speaker says most people are positioning too early, and what has to be settled first: your motive, your stage and your why.
- What positioning actually asks of you Free preview 4 minutes
- Know yourself, know your stage, know your why 8 minutes
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4 lessons
Module 2
The testing season
What happens in the years before anything works: how ideas get tested, why the speaker tells people to fail early, and what her most painful rejection eventually became.
- Values are not yours until they have been tested 4 minutes
- Patience, excellence and preparing the work 4 minutes
- Failing on time 4 minutes
- The offer that nearly ended it, and what the idea became 4 minutes
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2 lessons
Module 3
Positioning on purpose
How to test an idea against reality, what AI can and cannot do for you, and why the speaker builds only on her top strengths.
- Test the idea in the real world 7 minutes
- Build on your top five strengths 4 minutes
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2 lessons
Module 4
Making the work visible
Storytelling, documented impact, volunteering and continuous reading: the speaker's account of how opportunities now find people.
- Tell the story and make the work visible 4 minutes
- Read, be good at the work, and learn from people you admire 4 minutes
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3 lessons
Module 5
The leap of faith: how it happened
The speaker's account of entering the energy sector in 2015, told at the host's request, and the principle she draws from it.
- Follow my lead: the first nudges 5 minutes
- Abuja: going without a ticket 5 minutes
- He qualifies the called 6 minutes